Blue attended DeSoto High School in Mansfield. He pitched for the baseball team and quarterbacked the football team. In his senior year of football, he threw for 3,400 yards and completed 35 touchdown passes while rushing for 1,600 yards. In his senior year of baseball, Blue threw a no-hitter with 21 strikeouts in just seven innings pitched.[5]
Baseball career
Blue was a power pitcher who worked fast and attacked the strike zone. He threw an occasional curveball to keep hitters off balance and an above average change-up, but his signature pitch was a fastball which he threw consistently at 94 miles per hour (151 km/h),[6] but could reach 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).[7] In The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, all-time hits leader Pete Rose stated that Blue "threw as hard as anyone" he ever faced,[8] and baseball historian Bill James cited Blue as the hardest-throwing lefty, and the second-hardest thrower of his era, behind only Nolan Ryan.[9]
After Blue's breakthrough season in 1971, he and Athletics owner Charlie Finley clashed over his salary. Blue, who had earned $14,000 in 1971, sought a $92,500 salary. He held out, missing much of the year, before Blue and Finley settled at $63,000.[13] Blue ended up with a 6–10 record in spite of a 2.80 ERA in 1972. He did not make the Athletics' post-season starting rotation, instead pitching mainly in relief. Against the Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 World Series he made four appearances, including a save in Game 1, a blown save in Game 4, and a loss in a spot-start in Game 6.[24]
Blue pitches for the Oakland A's in 1973
Blue went 20–9 in 1973, 17–15 in 1974, and 22–11 in 1975, as an integral member of the Athletics' five straight American League Western Division pennants from 1971 to 1975, and three consecutive World Championships in 1972, 1973, and 1974. Perhaps his finest postseason performances were four innings of shutout relief work against the Detroit Tigers to save Game 5 of the 1972 American League Championship Series and a complete-game 1–0 shutout against the Orioles in Game 3 of the 1974 ALCS.[25] On September 28, 1975, Blue, Glenn Abbott, Paul Lindblad, and Rollie Fingers combined to no-hit the California Angels 5–0.[26][27]
After an 18–13 season with a 2.35 ERA in 1976, Blue told reporters, "I hope the next breath Charlie Finley takes is his last. I hope he falls flat on his face and dies of polio."[28] In June 1976, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn vetoed an attempt by Finley to sell Blue's contract to the New York Yankees, and did the same thing on January 30, 1978 to a trade announced by the Reds at the Winter Meetings on December 9, 1977, that would've had Blue sent to Cincinnati for Dave Revering and $1.75 million.[29][30] In both instances, Kuhn said the trades would be bad for baseball because they would benefit already powerful teams without making them give up any significant talent in return. At the end of the 1976 season, nearly the entire A's roster of star players from Oakland's championship teams left with baseball's new free agency, or were traded off by Finley, leaving Blue, who was still under contract with Oakland, to mentor a new team of primarily rookies and other young players. Alvin Dark, who managed Blue in 1974 and 1975, was surprised that Blue had remained with the team, writing that he "must have gotten the contract concessions he wanted."[31] In the 1977 season, Blue went 14–19 with a 3.83 ERA and leading the AL both in hits and earned runs surrendered.[32]
Blue went 14–14 with a career worst 5.01 ERA as a full-time starter in 1979,[36] 14–10 with a 2.97 ERA in 1980,[37] and 8–6 with a 2.45 ERA in 1981, a strike-interrupted season.[38]
In April 1985, Blue returned as a free agent to the San Francisco Giants on a one-year deal. He went 8–8 with a 4.47 ERA in 33 appearances, 20 of them starts, the rest in middle-inning and mop-up relief.[45]
Blue re-signed on another one-year deal in 1986, finishing his career going 10–10 with a 3.27 ERA in 28 appearances, all starts, at the age of 36.[46] On April 20, he won his 200th career MLB game.[47] Blue signed with the Oakland Athletics for the 1987 season, but announced his retirement in February 1987.[48]
Post-pitching career
After baseball, Blue was a baseball analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, the TV home of the San Francisco Giants.[49]
Blue's troubles with substance abuse continued to haunt him after his playing career, as he faced multiple DUI charges in 2005. He acknowledged that the trials may have influenced him being left off the Hall of Fame ballot after one year, stating, "I had some issues in my life that might have had a tendency to sway voting. There are some guys in the Hall of Fame who don't have halos."[50][51]
Charity work
In 1971, Blue accompanied Bob Hope on his USO Christmas tour of Vietnam and other military installations. Blue remained active, working for numerous charitable causes including Safeway All Stars Challenge Sports,[52] automobile donations,[53] celebrity golf tournaments,[54] and charities for children.[55]
Blue was also active promoting baseball in Costa Rica.[56]
They had twin girls and divorced in 1996. He also had a son Derrick[58] and two other daughters.[59]
After retiring from baseball, Blue resided in California's Twain Harte area in the Sierra Nevada foothills for many years, before moving to Tracy, California by 2007.[60]
Blue died in a hospital in the East Bay on May 6, 2023, at the age of 73.[49] According to Athletics' team officials, Blue died as a result of medical complications stemming from cancer.[61]
^Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.84, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN978-0-8027-1745-0
^Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 152, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, a Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN978-0-451-22363-0.
^Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.148, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN978-0-8027-1745-0
^Dark, Alvin; Underwood, John (1980). When in Doubt, Fire the Manager: My Life and Times in Baseball. New York: E. P. Dutton. p. 222. ISBN0-525-23264-8.
